Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) today attended the groundbreaking ceremony for one of the most demanding construction phases for the electricity connection – over the next four and a half years, cables will be laid under the Elbe from Wewelsfleth.
Cable pipes lie on prepared sandy ground during the laying of high-voltage underground cables for the Südlink power line.
Strictly speaking, SuedLink is two electricity connections: They start in Wilster (Steinburg district) and Brunsbüttel (Dithmarschen district), but already join together under the Elbe and only branch out again in southern Germany and then to Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg lead. Construction is taking place in Schleswig-Holstein in two sections, one from Brunsbüttel or Wilster to Wewelsfleth (Steinburg district) and one from there under the Elbe to Wischhafen in Lower Saxony.
Tunnel structure under the Elbe is built first
Construction work on the Elbe crossing officially starts today. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habcek (Greens) took part in the official groundbreaking ceremony in the late afternoon. With SuedLink, the south of Germany will be able to benefit from the large amounts of wind power from the north in the future, said Habeck. “In this way, we are strengthening security of supply in Germany and also that of our neighboring countries.”
A tunnel is being built from Wewelsfleth into which six 525 kV direct current cables will be installed. “So we are building a shaft in Schleswig-Holstein, lowering a tunnel boring machine there and over the course of four years it will go piece by piece under the Elbe and install concrete rings,” explains the managing director of the power grid operator Tennet, Tim Meyerjürgens. According to Tennet, construction work on the starting shaft of the tunnel structure will begin in the coming weeks. For this purpose, a construction site with containers and systems for process water treatment will be built, a pressure pipeline will be laid to the Hollerwettern pumping station and a construction pit will be dug.
No road closures until 2025
According to the network operator, there will be some special transport to bring large machine parts to the construction site, but roads will not be closed for this. “An exception is the cable transport for the tunnel cables,” it says when asked. “The cables will be delivered by ship to the Peters shipyard in Wewelsfleth and from there transported to the construction site. This will require road closures in the immediate vicinity of the construction site.” However, these cable transports should not take place until the beginning of 2025 at the earliest.
According to Tennet, construction noise is also to be expected during transport around the construction site, but within a normal range for civil engineering work.
Land cables could be laid from the end of 2024
Four and a half years of construction are scheduled for the Elbe crossing so that it can be completed at the same time as all other sections. The so-called planning approval decision is still missing for the construction section between Brunsbüttel, Wilster and Wewelsfleeth. Tennet expects this to be available by the end of next year. Then around 50 kilometers of land cable will be laid there. 34 cable drums are delivered to Brunsbüttel by ship and then transported on by road. However, there should be no complete closures. Only temporary parking bans are to be expected.
Delays caused by protests and criticism
From 2028, the first gigawatt hours of electricity will flow through SuedLink. The power line is intended to connect the wind energy areas in the north with southern Germany over a total of 700 kilometers. The construction work for SuedLink was actually supposed to have been completed last year. But this failed due to massive resistance from the southern federal states. Habeck also reminded on Monday that the route should already be finished. Now it will take another five to six years. “So we’re pretty behind. This shouldn’t happen to us again.” Tennet managing director Meyerjürgens said that everyone involved from politics, business and society must continue to work together so that SuedLink can go into operation as planned in 2028.
Habeck: Making progress with network expansion
Nevertheless, it is good news for the energy transition and for Germany that construction work on the Elbe crossing can now begin. According to Tennet, this section is one of the most challenging of the entire project. The fact that it is moving into the next and final phase shows that progress is being made in expanding the network, said Habeck. The Elbe crossing structure and the associated tunnel vehicles cost Tennet over 250 million euros.
In total, SuedLink is expected to cost around ten billion euros – the project has become significantly more expensive due to the current underground cable solution. Originally, the SuedLink cables were supposed to run above ground over electricity pylons, but this was not feasible for conservationists and residents, especially in the south.
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NDR 1 Wave North | News for Schleswig-Holstein | Sep 11, 2023 | 17:00 o’clock